Starting out as a Dragon Slave
Chapter 142: Frequency Instability

Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Frequency Instability

A few days later, all new assassins were summoned to the great hall of portals, an immense circular space carved directly from the dark rock beneath the royal palace. The floor was inlaid with a series of complex symbols, glowing electric blue, while several large magical portals emitted a pulsating and disturbing light at the back of the room. The atmosphere vibrated with an almost palpable tension, charged with arcane energies and barely contained murderous intentions.

Mordred stood motionless among the other half-dragons, perfectly silent, his impassive gaze fixed on the draconic scientists and officers bustling around them. Behind this facade of icy indifference, his mind was already calculating each variable, each possibility, each flaw in the system he could exploit.

Finally, one of the mission leaders, an old dragon with midnight blue scales and a voice as rough as crushed gravel, announced:

- "You will be divided into pairs. Each duo will pass through a different portal to already established and secured dungeons. The humans you will encounter there are weak, inexperienced teams, easily neutralized. You must eliminate the entire human group upon arrival, without exception. Afterward, you will await our instructions via the collars."

He briefly consulted his list, his reptilian eyes glowing with a disturbing gleam, and added:

- "Mordred, you will be paired with Ygdrasyle."

Mordred slowly turned his head toward the designated man, his movement as fluid and controlled as that of a predator. Ygdrasyle was tall and slim, with an elongated but athletic body. He was calm, impassive, his fine, pale face framed by brilliant white hair that reached his shoulders. His silver gaze seemed to pierce through everything he looked at, impenetrable, mysterious, as if he could dissect the very soul of those he observed.

Ygdrasyle moved slowly toward Mordred, his gaze unfathomable but almost respectful:

- "So you’re Mordred. I’ve heard about your combat skills. Impressive."

Mordred nodded soberly, carefully observing this new partner, analyzing his gait, his posture, his aura:

- "And you, what’s your specialty?"

Ygdrasyle smiled slightly, almost enigmatically, a subtle tremor on his thin lips:

- "Invisibility, stealth, and information gathering. I am the eyes and ears, while you will be the armed hand."

Mordred tilted his head slightly, recognizing an obvious complementarity between them, like two blades forged differently but destined for the same sheath.

The draconic leader suddenly raised his voice, interrupting their conversation, his voice echoing against the stone walls like a funeral knell:

- "Everyone take position in front of your assigned portal!"

Mordred and Ygdrasyle calmly headed toward their portal, glowing with deep blue, hypnotic energy, similar to a vertical abyss. Around them, other duos did the same, silent, focused. Mordred felt a shiver of icy excitement run down his back as he advanced, as if something within him recognized the critical importance of this passage.

The leader shouted a final order, his voice saturated with ancient magic:

- "Enter the portal. The mission begins now."

Without hesitation, Mordred crossed the magical energy membrane, immediately followed by Ygdrasyle, their silhouettes engulfed by the supernatural light.

The arrival in the dungeon was brutal. Mordred felt his body emerge into a damp darkness, air saturated with the smell of wet rock and mold. It was an underground cavern dimly lit by human torches awkwardly placed on the irregular walls, projecting dancing shadows that seemed almost alive.

Immediately, he spotted the targets. Before them, a group of human hunters, about ten or so, had just reacted to the sudden opening of the portal. They seemed inexperienced, wearing poorly fitted light armor, and their surprise was clearly visible on their faces, like lambs suddenly perceiving the presence of the wolf.

- "Who are you?" exclaimed one of them, clumsily raising his sword.

Without losing a second, Mordred leapt forward, his body crossing the space in a fraction of a second thanks to his newly acquired superhuman speed. He struck the first human in the throat with a precise gesture, his dagger piercing clean through, without a cry, without hesitation, like a needle passing through a veil of silk.

Panicked chaos immediately seized the human group. Mordred chained attacks with cold and merciless efficiency, moving with lethal fluidity, his movements so fast they seemed impossible to follow with the human eye. Each movement was economical, perfectly calibrated, like a deadly dance choreographed for millennia.

Meanwhile, Ygdrasyle, at his side, disappeared completely from view in the blink of an eye, his body becoming totally invisible, even to Mordred’s overdeveloped senses. Humans, even those far from him, suddenly collapsed, their throats slashed or hearts pierced by a phantom blade. None understood how they died so suddenly, caught off guard by the relentless assault of the invisible man.

The battle was brief, brutal, one-sided. In just moments, the entire human team was neutralized without having had time to offer any valuable resistance, like candles blown out by a storm.

[Physical statistics absorption in progress...]

[+3 in strength; +2 in mana]

Silence fell heavily in the damp cave, punctuated only by the sound of the last drops of blood falling on the stone. Ygdrasyle slowly reappeared beside Mordred, calmly wiping his blood-stained blade, an almost ceremonial gesture.

- "You’re fast," he observed with cold satisfaction. "I think we’ll make a good duo."

Mordred, his face expressionless, simply nodded silently, already focused on the events to come.

Immediately, a discreet vibration resonated in their collars. The dragon leader’s voice resonated clearly, calm but firm:

- "Mission accomplished. Remain discreet. Await further orders. I repeat: do not try to escape. We are monitoring your every movement."

Mordred exchanged a dark look with Ygdrasyle. The message was clear, but he had long since moved beyond the stage of fear or passive obedience. His mind had been forged in the flames of pure, unshakable determination. Now, he was internally free, despite these invisible chains, his mental state having become an inviolable fortress.

Without a word, the two assassins advanced deeper into the cave, carefully erasing all traces of the recent massacre. Mordred contemplated the darkness before him, his gaze piercing the blackness as if he could already see the threads of fate weaving before him, knowing that soon, very soon, everything would change.

Ygdrasyle finally spoke, in a calm but slightly intrigued voice:

- "What will you do, Mordred, if one day you manage to free yourself from this collar?"

Mordred kept silent for a moment, his intense gaze lost in the darkness, then responded in a composed voice charged with implacable determination:

- "I will do what I was born to do. I will take back what was stolen from me."

The silence in the dungeon was now nothing more than a ghostly echo of the storm of violence that had swept through it.

Around them, dismembered carcasses of monstrous creatures littered the tortuous corridors of the labyrinth. The floor was stained with black blood and viscous fluids, the air laden with the smell of burnt flesh and residual magical powder. Mordred absently wiped the edge of his dagger on the back of his tunic, his gestures having become mechanical through the repetition of executions, his mind already turned toward the next stage of his personal plan.

Ygdrasyle, silent as always, reappeared at his side, still covered in the dark blood of an Akarash a simian beast with chitinous skin that he had killed with a single slash to the throat, his deadly precision testifying to perfect mastery of his art.

- "The boss is dead," he announced, nodding toward the gigantic reptilian corpse whose skull had been smashed against the stone wall by Mordred’s superhuman blow. Its regeneration magic hadn’t even had time to activate.

A discreet whistle crackled in their collars. The deep, imperious voice of a dragon commander resonated in the confined space:

- "Secondary objective: cross the portal and enter the human world. Infiltration is priority. You must locate the human exit of the dungeon by your own means. No mistakes. No indulgence."

Mordred raised his eyes to the dark ceiling of the dungeon, his gaze piercing as if he could see through the rock itself. He already knew where to go, a deep intuition guiding his steps.

- "Follow me," he growled to Ygdrasyle.

They descended into the lowest galleries, where the air became moldy and saturated with ancient magic, each breath filling their lungs with primordial energies. Draconic inscriptions engraved in the rock vibrated faintly, like heartbeats, pulsing in synchronization with invisible magical currents. Mordred recognized them. He had seen them, years earlier, in the ruins of the Lower City arena. This wasn’t just a simple passage. It was a boundary between two worlds, a threshold between two realities.

They finally arrived before the arch, an ancient portal, smaller than the main one but just as active. Filaments of bluish energy snaked through the air, attracting particles of light like a gravitational well, forming a cosmic web of infinite possibilities.

- "It’s here," said Mordred, his voice resonating with absolute certainty.

Ygdrasyle simply nodded, then went through first without hesitation, his body absorbed by the luminous membrane.

Mordred took a deep breath, concentrating all his will, gathering all his mental strength... and crossed the ethereal membrane in turn.

But at the very moment he entered the vortex...

Everything exploded.

Not around him. Inside. In him.

His mind screamed without making a sound. His skull began to pulse like a war drum, each beat sending waves of incandescent pain through his consciousness. He staggered at the edge of the portal, dropping to one knee, gripping his head with demonic force, his nails digging into his scalp until drops of scarlet blood pearled.

- AAAARGH...!

It was as if two currents of energy were clashing inside him, as if his soul was trying to lock onto two opposing and irreconcilable frequencies. A deafening buzz rose in his eardrums, growing louder and louder, until his entire field of perception became blurred, fragmented into a chaotic kaleidoscope. Blinding flashes crossed his retina, transforming his vision into luminous chaos. Superimposed faces, memories that didn’t belong to him or rather, that belonged to him but from another life. His own reflection... in double, a shattered and recomposed image.

Isaac. Mordred. Two beings. Two identities. Two consciousnesses. In the same world.

And his soul... no longer knew where to go, torn between two polarities, two parallel existences that should never have met.

He saw the ground spin like a mad carousel, colors intermingling in a dizzying maelstrom. He staggered. Ygdrasyle, already on the other side, grabbed him by the arm just before he completely collapsed. His gaze was cold, but a hint of concern could be seen in his metallic pupils:

- "Are you...?"

- "N... No..." articulated Mordred, teeth clenched enough to break his molars, each syllable torn from a volcano of suffering. "There’s... something wrong..."

System notifications erupted in a corner of his mind, blurry, disorderly, like fragments of broken glass clashing in his consciousness.

[Convergence anomaly detected]

[Mental instability due to co-presence of avatars]

[Sensory overload - soul fragmentation]

[Synchronization impossible]

[No immediate solution]

He suffocated, forehead against the ground, his lungs contracting spasmodically. A thin thread of blood escaped from his nostrils, shining like liquid ruby. The instability between his two forms... Isaac, locked in a human prison beneath Paris, still breathing, still thinking. Mordred, infiltrated into the real world like a hidden monster, an aberration in the fabric of reality. The universe wasn’t supposed to allow this, this impossible duality. The system screamed in silent alarms. His being threatened to split in two, like an unstable star ready to explode.

But as chaos threatened to engulf him, Mordred drew from the depths of his being, from this mental strength he had cultivated through trials, tortures, manipulations. This will that had survived the erasure of his memory, the reconfiguration of his identity. This determination that had become the very essence of his soul, transcending names, roles, existences.

- "Hold on," he whispered, to himself... to Isaac... to Mordred, his voice barely audible but charged with an inflexible will. "I’m not finished. Not yet."

By the sheer power of his will, he forced the scattered fragments of his consciousness to reassemble, to remain coherent. He refused dissolution, he rejected fragmentation. His mind, forged in the flames of adversity, closed like an impenetrable fortress around the paradox that threatened to tear him apart.

The tumult receded gently under the relentless assault of his determination. The pain subsided, without really disappearing, like a fierce beast momentarily tamed but never vanquished. He had managed to stifle the cry of his fractured soul for now. His mental strength had created a temporary barrier, a fragile respite in the storm of his doubled existence.

He raised his eyes, his gaze still blazing with a dark light, residue of the internal battle he had just fought.

And saw the sky of the human world stretching above him.

Heavy clouds, swollen with imminent rain. Orange glow of urban streetlights in the distance, like earthly stars in a dark firmament. A city on the periphery, asleep and ignorant of the predator who had just crossed the threshold between worlds.

- "We are here," declared Ygdrasyle. "Mission accomplished."

Mordred rose slowly, his legs still trembling but his mind once again master of itself. His posture straightened imperceptibly, imposing despite the fatigue. His eyes, shining with an inhuman determination, scrutinized the urban horizon.

The instability was still there, lurking in the recesses of his soul, but his will kept it in check. For now. Long enough for him to accomplish what he had returned for.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.